This invention relates to trucks and trailers used for hauling and delivering bulk materials, and is more particularly concerned with a truck body (or trailer body) in which there are two or more separate compartments that can be individually raised for dispensing the contents.
The invention is directed to a truck or trailer arrangement for hauling bulk products, such as bulk landscape materials, e.g., mulch, topsoil, stone, wood chips, compost, etc. When transported these materials have to be kept separate. The truck or trailer allows the materials to be delivered and dispensed on site by dumping from the truck body or trailer body, rather than having to be shoveled off. The invention involves having a pair of independent dumping compartments, each of which has its own hydraulic cylinder or other power lift mechanism.
In the procedure in current use, there is a single dump body on a truck or trailer, and where the customer needs two or more types of bulk landscaping materials, the driver usually has to make two or more trips, or else try to keep the two materials separated with a tarp or a plywood divider. Making two trips, each trip with only a half-load is very inefficient. The use of a divider does not prevent the two different bulk products from mixing and contaminating one another. Bulk products are more economical than the same product in packages or bags, but there has not been an efficient means for getting several types of material to the same site or two nearby sites, using a dump truck or dumping trailer.